


Open the Door

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Series: Finding Home Away From Home (GQ/NB Dean Winchester with Shadow Moon Fics) [26]
Category: American Gods (TV), American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Supernatural
Genre: Berkeley Era, Berkeley Outtakes, Computers, Dean is Not Amused, Fae Gender, Froday Flash Fiction Challenge, Geek Dean, Gen, Home is Where Shadow Is, Like Stanford Era But Not Because This is Dean Get It?, Misgendering, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Dean Winchester, Outtakes, POV Dean Winchester, POV Second Person, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Queer Character, Tired Dean, University of California Berkeley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 06:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12127008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Dean has run away from the Winchesters with perfectly good reason and is Shadow Moon's roommate at Berkeley. Dean's also a nonbinary faerie who doesn't know a campus computer tech job keeps him in the clutches of Technical Boy. A flash fiction piece showing what computer geek Dean deals with. Berkeley, 2001. (The Before-Time but along the timeline in a weird way of American Gods.) Shadow is not in this fic. The 'verse is second person. This can stand alone but slots in the middle.





	Open the Door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sirensnares](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirensnares/gifts).



> Prompt: Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. (Chinese Proverb)

Berkeley, 2001

You stand in front of their office door holding a brand new computer tower, or what passes for brand new on campus--it’s tested and it’ll be new to them, and if this one well and truly actually dies, then they’ll have to receive an upgrade. Doris Hollander is standing half in your way.

“Yes, ma’am,” you start saying automatically, “If you could please, um,”

“Yes, young man, what would you like?”

Inside, something rips slightly away from your ribcage. “I…” You recover. “I have your computer, ma’am. If you could just open the door. This is from the computer lab staff.”

“I see.”

“Yeah, so, um…”

“That looks heavy, dear.”

You sigh. “Sure. Yes. Could you open the door, ma’am?”

“You’re not from around here,” she opines. “Where are you from?”

Doris Hollander has strangely blue hair and looks about fifty years older than she should be, or for that matter, older than the rest of the faculty.

 _Everywhere_. “Around, ma’am.”

“I see. Well, yes. I haven’t got anything interesting in my office but if you want… You know, they told me to turn my last machine on and off like a lampshade. Can you imagine?”

You sigh. The door is open and you lumber through. “No, ma’am,” you lie, and you are tired and you just want to get back home.

Berkeley is home, and you have no regrets, not a single one in the universe. You made it here and you will be okay.

You just want to get out of Doris’ office, and quickly.


End file.
